“In Browning’s Dracula (1931) and Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the American model [of horror] had largely abandoned the expressionistic experiments of the 1920s…”

“As an anonymous newspaper reviewer put it, in a passage quoted by John Brosnan: ‘… American audiences demand realism in their stories, and in their photography at least apparent realism. Therefore while European special effects men go in for the bizarre shots, their American counterparts have only one endeavor: to make every trick shot look as realistic as possible.’ ”